Portrait of a Lady was first published in 1881. The text reprinted here is the final version, revised by James for the definitive New York Edition of his works.  The Portrait of a Lady is considered James's first major novel. It is his most thorough and finest exploration to that time of a theme that held his imagination : the impact of the older European civilization on the American character.  In Isabel Archer, the American girl who "affronts her destiny" in Europe, James created one of the more enduring and subtle literary portrayals of women. The Portrait is recognized as a triumph of James's method of psychological realism.